“It’s utterly unhelpful for the Federal Government to be assisting Tasmania to move jobs out of Victoria to Tassie,” Mr Guy said.

“We don’t like the idea of the feds taking sides in a state-by-state battle.”

But Minister for Employment Eric Abetz rejected the claims.

“The Federal Government did not make any offer of any form of financial assistance to Qantas in relation to jobs at the call centre in Hobart,’’ a spokesman for the Tasmanian Senator said.

“This was a commercial ­decision made by Qantas.”

Premier Will Hodgman said further details about the assistance package provided to Qantas would be released when negotiations were finalised.

“We expect the number of jobs at the call centre will grow, creating further opportunities for Tasmanians,’’ he said.

Australian Services Union regional organiser Dennis Mullins says 139 workers will lose their jobs when Sitel call centre in Devonport closes at the end of the year. Picture: Chris KiddSource: Supplied

Qantas will consolidate its three call centres into the Dowsings Point centre by 2016 as part of a $2 billion transformation program and associated reduction of 5000 jobs.

Interstate relocation costs for staff moving to Tasmania would be paid by the airline.

Qantas Domestic chief executive Lyell Strambi said one call centre would be more efficient.

“Hobart was the logical choice for us to base our Australia call centre operations because of the modern facilities, the space available within the existing site and the ongoing costs of operating there,’’ he said.

“The Tasmanian Government has been very supportive of our Hobart call centre and is passionate about the future of Qantas Group operations in the State.”

But in a veiled warning, Mr Strambi said customers were increasingly turning to online, mobile and social media to communicate with Qantas.

A Qantas spokeswoman said there was not a target number of jobs for the call ­centre.

“We will look at that after we see what level of the interest there is from employees in Brisbane and Melbourne is,’’ she said.

Mr Strambi said employees in the Brisbane and Melbourne call centres would be offered redeployment to Hobart and be paid relocation costs.

Australian Services Union assistant branch secretary Igor Grattan said it was too early to tell how many interstate workers would move to the state.

“The first question that needs to be answered is how many positions there will be in the call centre,’’ he said.

The union will meet Qantas management today.

Glenorchy Mayor Stuart Slade said it was great comfort that many residents of the city would retain their jobs.

“The consolidation of the Australian call centres to Glenorchy will provide positive flow-on effects for our community,’’ Alderman Slade said.

Labor Leader Bryan Green lauded the Qantas jobs announcement, but said the Liberal Government needed to react to the closure of the Sitel call centre in Devonport, announced yesterday, which would see 139 employees lose their jobs.

“Also the workers of the M2 Hobart call centre still face an uncertain future,’’ he said.

“The Government must work with these employers and unions to support workers and find solutions to keep jobs in this state.”

Comments on this story

sam edwin of Moonah Posted at 8:30 PM May 29, 2014

Richard Bentley of Railton-Typical Tasmanian mentality if you have not realized yet there is a far bigger Island to the North. All residents in certain areas of higher unemployment such as Byron Bay, gold coast,, west Sydney, parts of Adelaide, Perth etc are also included. You decided to live in such an area of higher unemployment

Richard Bentley of Railton Posted at 1:21 PM May 29, 2014

Over what sort of time frame will these potential 450 people move to Hobart?
Will Qantas put them up in hotels until they find suitable accommodation?
Will the positions be guaranteed long term considering that they may have to sell houses, relocate children from better schools than ours etc.?
Will Qantas be paying them relocation allowances and so forth?
Perhaps Young William can tell all the unemployed people of Hobart how this relocation of 450 people from interstate benefits them, when a lot of them are looking down the barrel at becoming slaves on pointless work for the dole schemes.

Jaymie Brown of Hobart Posted at 5:00 AM May 29, 2014

As and ex employee of the Call Centre I just want to say that I am so happy for everybody out there. The staff at this call centre are fantastic, they work hard and work so well together and this is a great decision for Hobart. It is sad about the other centres in Melbourne and Brisbane though as they too have some fantastic people. I do hope that some of those staff are willing and able to move to Tassie to take up positions as it really is a great place to work, for the most part ,and Tassie is a fantastic place to live. Once again I am so happy for you all.